Register for our Microlending Forum on Disruptive Technology, January 9, 2013 in San Francisco.
If you are serious about growing your microloan portfolio, want to reduce transaction costs and learn more about new, disruptive solutions to micro lending, this Forum is a ‘Must Go’. It’s open to lenders, TA providers doing loan packaging and CAMEO bank partners.
- FY2014-2015 Federal Budget – Take Action!
- Shop Local Update! Holiday Guide
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes the Affordable Care Act news and opportunities to learn about how it affects businesses.
FY2014-2015 Federal Budget – Take Action!
On Tuesday, a bi-partisan committee agreed on a budget deal that will fund the government until the fall of 2015.
The good news: we have a deal and will have some certainty about future funding for our programs.
The rest of the story: the deal keeps the budget cuts that happened because of sequestration in the 2013 budget, but eliminates further cuts in 2014 and 2015.
Next steps: the House and Senate have to pass the deal and the appropriations committees need to allocate money by January 15, 2014 when the government runs out of money. So we won’t know what the budget is for the programs that affect the microbusiness field until then. As a point of reference, the FY2013 budget was a five percent reduction of the FY2012 budget.
Take action: AEO has made it super easy to let the committee leaders and other legislators know that you want to “Ensure Critical FY2014 Funding for Business Assistance to Our Nation’s Entrepreneurs.” It takes less than two minutes to express your support for our related programs by clicking on the link.
CAMEO is advocating for slightly different amounts for the budget than AEO based on what we think is possible in this political climate. You can edit the letter (cut and paste the following) after you put in your information.
SBA PRIME Program – $5M
SBA Microloan – Lending – $25M
SBA Microloan – Technical Assistance – $20M
SBA Women’s Business Center Program – $14M
SBA Small Business Development Centers -$115M
SBA Boots to Business – $7M
USDA RBEG – $30M
Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund – $224.6M
Shop Local! Holiday Guide
I’m gathering a listing of your shop local guides for the 2013 Holiday Season. Send me yours and I’ll post it.
Also, a few weeks ago, we launched a ‘Go Local’ op-ed campaign to draw attention to it. Pacific Coast Business TImes published an op-ed “Your holiday gift to your community“, authored by Marsha Bailey, CEO of Women’s Economic Ventures! It’s not to late to volunteer to write an op-ed – just contact me for questions and a shop local template.
The Goodies
New opportunities for trainings, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know: I have posted a running tab of current Industry Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything, like grants whose deadlines are still alive!
CAMEO Event Recap: Read the recap of Food, Glorious Food Biz!. It was a great success with an excellent set of speakers, content and inspiration.
Member Kudos: VEDC was featured in Businessweek for a new $20 million fund to lend to small businesses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut – “Low-Cost Loans for Small Businesses Turned Down by Banks.”
New Report: The SBA Office of Advocacy put out a report Crossing the Employer Threshold: Determinants of Firms Hiring Their First Employee. Find out what are the factors that lead new businesses without
employees to hire their first employee. This is a significant aspect of small business job creation.
Virtual Conference: CrowdFunding World Summit takes place on the interwebs from December 3 -16, 2013. With seven tracks including Best Practices For Entrepreneurs & Small Businesses, it’s sure to be information packed.
Health Care Info: Covered California SHOP is fully functional and open for business. Learn more about Covered California. Learn more about how the health law impacts your business.
Healthcare Virtual Town Hall: Join IBM and the IRS for a Virtual Town Hall session on how the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit under the Affordable Care Act helps make insurance coverage more affordable for small employers. Register for the December 16, 2013 12:00 – 1:00pm (PT) // 3:00 – 4:00pm (ET) town hall or the December 18, 2013 12:30 – 1:30pm (PT) // 3:30 – 4:30pm (PT) town hall.
Healthcare Webinars: Small Business Majority and the Small Business Administration are hosting a webinar series that will discuss the new healthcare law – the Affordable Care Act – and what it means for California small businesses. They’re on December 17 in English and December 18 in Spanish.
Free Webinar: CFED hosts Findings from the BETA Project on December 17, 2013 at 12:00-1:00 PT // 3:00- 4:00 pm EST. The BETA Project was launched to improve the effectiveness of products and services designed to help people bolster their financial security. In the 12 months since, we’ve worked closely with three organizations to understand a problem in their program, design solutions and test them.
Funding Opportunity: The CDFI Fund announced the opening of its FY 2014 round of Financial and Technical Assistance Programs, anticipating up to $191 million in awards (subject to the passage of appropriations for FY 2014). The application deadline is midnight, December 23, 2013. Learn more about the CDFI FY 2014 Funding Round and download the application.